The History of Berlin's Urban Green Space

Development of Urban Green Space in East Berlin, 1948 to 1990

In 1950 Lingner left the city government. The Main Department of Green-Space Planning was dissolved as part of an administrative reform, and the borough departments of public gardens were downgraded to offices for the city parks. A City Public Gardens Department was reestablished in 1960, due to the problems that had arisen, and Dr. Helmut Lichey appointed to head it as city public gardens director. Lichey's efforts also lead to the reestablishment of public gardens departments in the boroughs, which however increasingly had only control and contracting functions. Care and maintenance were in time transferred to the Urban Green Space VEB (state-owned company). After Lichey left office, the city government in 1975 appointed Gottfried Funeck as director of the department. Funeck was dismissed in the middle of 1990 and the management of the City Public Gardens Department was transferred to Dr. Hans Georg Büchner.

The following planning measures and stipulations are of essential importance for the urban development in the eastern part of the city, including the development of the open-space system:

1949:

The General Reconstruction Plan drafted by members of the Scharoun collective who had remained in East Berlin, marks the beginning of parallel planning in the separate parts of the city

1950:

The Reconstruction Law and the Sixteen Principles of Urban Construction

1952:

Appeal by the Central Committee of the Communist Party (SED)
"For the Reconstruction of Berlin"; Beginning of the work of the National
Reconstruction Committee (NAW), with the Stalin-Allee complex as the most important
structural result

1958:

"Foundation of the Planning for the Socialist Transformation
of the Capital Berlin"

1961:

"Plan for the Construction of the Center of the Capital
of the German Democratic Republic"

1969:

General Construction Plan and General Traffic Plan, with the Plan for the Green and Recreational System

1979:

General Construction Plan for the period through 1990

1989:

Land-use plans for 1990-1995 and for the period after 1995.

The following essential phases mark the development of the urban green spaces in East Berlin:

To 1950

Until the beginning of the '50s, tasks were addressed under Lingner's management that resulted directly or indirectly from the effects of the war:

Elimination of the rubble; the rubble-mountain concept, including a planting concept with the goal of raising the heights at the edge of the glacial spillway, in order to accentuate the landscape (bunker hills in the Friedrichshain, the Oderbruchstraße landfill, the Biesdorfer Berg literally, Biesdorf Mountain)